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Published:12:58Thursday 18 October 2018

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Ireland’s premier has used the story of an IRA bombing of a customs post to emphasise to EU leaders the importance of the border issue.

Leo Varadkar brought a copy of an Irish newspaper to the Brussels summit dinner on Wednesday evening which featured the story of the IRA blast which killed nine people in August 1972.

Leo Varadkar

Four customs officials, two lorry drivers and three IRA men died in the explosion at Newry customs clearing station.

Mr Varadkar held up a copy of Wednesday’s Irish Times during the meeting to stress the importance of how far Northern Ireland and Ireland have come since the Troubles, journeying from violence to peace.

The family of one of the lorry drivers said they fear Brexit could spark renewed violence along the border.

Jack McCann, from Co Monaghan, died in the explosion which was the worst attack on a Northern Ireland customs post during the Troubles.

Mr McCann’s daughter Mary Casey, who was 21 when her father died, spoke of her fear of border custom posts returning in the wake of a no-deal Brexit.

She told the newspaper that she believes there will be a hard border.

“I don’t know how else it is going to work, to be honest. It would be scary. I imagine it is going back to the way it was.”

She made the comments ahead of a two-day European Council summit in Brussels where EU leaders are discussing the Irish border issue.